In some magnetic recording systems, the write current delivered to a magnetic recording head is varied according to transition spacing within a data record being written to a magnetic storage medium, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) platter. For example, Pattern-dependent write (PDW) current overshoot amplitude control is sometimes used to improve recording quality. During recording of magnetic transitions for data records with tightly spaced bits, the magnetic state of the magnetic recording head's pole-tip does not have sufficient time to become magnetically saturated. As such, a PDW current overshoot setting may be used drive the pole tip quickly from one saturated state to the opposite saturated state. A less aggressive overshoot setting is needed for longer prior bit cell durations; whereas, short bit cell durations require a more aggressive overshoot setting for faster magnetic switching. Thus, it is advantageous to dynamically vary the current overshoot amplitude as a function of bit cell duration.